


Exposed: The Truth About Bruce Wayne's Secret Woman

by Loverlylo



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gossip, News Media, POV Outsider, Rumors, Selina Is Bruce's best friend, Which has got to look weird, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:14:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23063803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loverlylo/pseuds/Loverlylo
Summary: Everyone knows about Bruce Wayne's mysterious shadow, but no one knows just who she is. Until now, when the Gotham Gazette reveals all!By Vicki Vale.Bruce Wayne's oldest friend is none other than Selina Kyle, a street rat tuned criminal mastermind. But how does the rest of the world find out about that?
Relationships: Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 9
Kudos: 150





	Exposed: The Truth About Bruce Wayne's Secret Woman

**Author's Note:**

> This was based mostly on the Gotham-verse, but there's elements from a lot of different verses.

**Exposed: The Truth About Bruce Wayne's Secret Woman**

**By Vicki Vale**

\---

In the five years since his reappearance, there is little about Bruce Wayne that has remained a secret. The 7 year absence might be a complete mystery, but his life in Gotham is an open book. Bruce Wayne is a pillar of the local community, a champion for Gotham’s poorest and most disadvantaged, a brilliant businessman, and a playboy so charismatic that I have never met a woman who has minded being added to Wayne’s bedpost.

However, there is one lingering question. The presence of a woman who can barely be described, let alone named, by those around Mr. Wayne. Yet, we all know she’s there. We’ve seen her out of the corner of our eyes, felt her presence in cancelled meetings, abandoned dates, and shoes left outside the one room in Wayne Manor no one is allowed inside. Petite, with curly brown hair and ethnically ambiguous skin; she is a fact, for all her mystery. There are only two accepted theories about her, an embodiment of Gotham’s perpetual battle between cynicism and optimism. She’s either a kept woman whose secrecy allows Bruce Wayne to do whatever he wishes to her, or the product of one of his father’s affairs, and Bruce is allowing his sister to retain a semblance of normalcy.

But I have learned the truth, and it blows both of those out of the water. The reality is much stranger than even the strangest fiction. Buckle up, buttercup; we’re going on a ride.

\---

Most others who attempted to dig up dirt on this woman made the mistake of starting with Mr. Wayne’s reappearance. After all, he was 17 when he disappeared, known for his frequent bouts of isolation and lack of real friends. Surely, she came into his life after that. However, a glimpse of curly brown hair can be seen in footage of the press conference held to announce that Bruce Wayne was alive. More specifically, it can be seen across the street from the podium for about half a second after Bruce gives a broad smile that is honestly best described as the embodiment of love itself. And if he was happy to see her immediately after his return, he must have known her before. 

It took very few calls to confirm this. Even with the bare description cobbled together by Gotham society, almost everyone can confirm that young Bruce Wayne was frequently in the presence of a brunette with curly hair and an unclassifiable skin tone. Teachers at every school he attended in his adolescence recall him eating lunch with her, though she herself was not a student. Every time someone tried to approach her; she’d vanish in a blink, with Wayne swearing he’d been alone. Housekeepers whisper stories of signs that a woman lived in the Manor, only to be quickly rebuffed. Wayne Enterprises employees swap tales of the occasions their young owner would visit, always with two shadows: his guardian, Alfred Pennyworth, and a teenage girl, dressed all in black. When pressed for details, no one could give a clear picture, but the general story was “tiny, not white, with curly brown hair”. 

For a while, I thought that was where this story started and ended. Bruce Wayne, in his youth, had a close companion. She was always present, but preferred to stay in the shadows then and now, and Bruce Wayne indulges the only person, other than his butler, who can claim to have known him for any length of time. Our favorite playboy has a soft spot, the end. 

Until, when voicing my frustration of being unable to get a single photo of this woman at any point in her life, it was suggested I talk to Shaun Mulready, a retired Wayne Enterprises accountant. You see, Mr. Mulready documents the annual gala every year, and several people remembered her as Bruce’s date at least once. 

Shaun Mulready, it turns out, has a very sweet reason for crafting scrapbooks for every Wayne Gala since 1972. “I met my wife there.” He told me. “She was a waitress, I had lucked into an invitation when my boss got sick. The next year, we were married and she was my date. It was our annual big night out. We’d take a camera, then make the scrapbooks together. Eventually, they began including more and more, but the gala was always the grand finale.” 

Mrs. Mulready brought out the relevant scrapbook; one that was quite clearly well-perused. “I know exactly who you’re talking about. That was the first gala after the Waynes, well. It was Bruce’s first gala, so a lot of people, us included, brought their children. Poor boy; we didn’t want him to feel alone.” She leafed through the pages, looking for a particular photo.

“Turns out, we didn’t need to bother. Kid has his own date, and barely left her side all night. Guess some things are just innate.” Shaun smiled at the memory of Bruce’s first outing as Gotham’s heartbreaker.

Mrs. Mulready smacked her husband’s shoulder. “Hush, you. It was sweet. Ah, here it is. Just look at them, puppy love at its finest.” She hands me the scrapbook, the center photo my long-awaited prize: Bruce Wayne dancing with a girl, neither of them older than 13. “Sorry it’s just a profile of her. She was very good at avoiding the camera.” 

The photo, despite being a mere profile, is sufficient to confirm her as the mystery woman. What’s more stunning, though, is the look on their faces. Bruce Wayne is well-known to have spent most of his teenage years as a very stoic person, an unsurprising effect of the loss of his parents.This photo is all the rarer for proving not only that his shadow exists, but capable of making him smile, a broad manic thing met with a playful smirk. 

Mrs. Mulready offered me a copy, handed over with a sigh. “I wish she’d come back the next year, though for my sanity it was best she didn’t. My son fell in love with her that night. For the next three months, all I heard about was Selina Kyle.”

That, you see, was the real prize of this visit. Not that the photo is not its own wonder, but a name for this indescribable shadow. You see, the name “Selina Kyle” is the key to all that follows. Without it, this is simply a cute story of a man protecting an old friend. But with it, well, that is where this tale takes a turn. 

In a nutshell, Selina Kyle does not exist. At least, not on paper. No driver’s license, tax records, employment records, high school diplomas, GEDs, arrest records, property holdings, bills of sale, birth certificate, or even a library card were issued for Selina Kyle. The only proof I found of her was her child protective services case file-- abandoned to the system by her mother at five--, elementary school records-- which end when she was 10. Notes indicate she was a frequent runaway, and eventually, people stopped dragging her back. The assumption was that Selina had died, a victim of Narrows violence, but no death certificates were issued, nor did any Jane Does match her description. Selina Kyle likely became one of countless kids on the street.

Which is a tragic story, but you remember we found this girl by looking for the omnipresent shadow of Bruce Wayne, Gotham’s most favored son, it becomes perplexing. The logistics alone are baffling. How did an isolated billionaire orphan meet a homeless street kid, let alone become best friends? The answer, as most things do with Bruce Wayne, goes back to that night seventeen years ago, when Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed. 

Armed with the photo, I made my way through the countless men and women of Gotham’s finest who worked the Narrows when Selina was young. More than a few recognized her, not as Selina Kyle, but a pickpocket named Cat. One Detective Pulanski had particularly fond memories of her. 

“She was a good kid.” He told me over station coffee. “Most people in her place, that alone in the world, they’d turn cold. Not Cat. She’d watch out for younger kids, teach ‘em how to survive, fed strays. She was a thief, but she always went after the rich f--kers coming to see the working girls, not anyone from the neighborhood. Cat still had her heart.” 

When I asked about how she had no arrest records if she had been arrested, he grinned. “Kid never gave up her name. Processed her under Cat Doe.”

Cat Doe, it turns out, has quite the juvenile record. Multiple arrests for larceny, battery, and assault, though the most prominent charge was pickpocketing. They also show that while she started in the Narrows, Selina moved to the business district after a few years. A practical move, giving her both fatter wallets and people less likely to chase her. More than a few old-timers, security guards and food vendors, remembered her. They mirrored Pulanski’s statements, that she was rough around the edges, but a good kid. 

They also mention that she disappeared not long after the Wayne murders; but assumed a smart girl like her had moved on. One purveyor of falafel-- whose wares are top-notch, it mys be said-- told me he assumed she’d seen the bodies and gotten spooked. “Cat liked crawling the fire escapes to spot a target, and that alley was one of her favorites haunts. I’d be more shocked if she didn’t see something.”

It is this tidbit that pushed me back towards the Gotham Police; this time, the Major Case squad. There had long been rumors of a second witness to the Wayne murders, but nothing to support it. No reports, no files, no informants. According to every piece of Gotham PD documentation, Bruce Wayne was the only person to see his parents’ deaths. But this case was under James Gordon, who might be commissioner now, but as a rookie often took unusual actions to combat the rampant corruption of the GPD. Quite a few officers of that time recall seeing her around the station soon after the murders, always asking for Gordon. He, in turn, never failed to make her current issue vanish. Until one day, when he asked Officer Dane Williams to escort her to Wayne Manor. 

“She wasn’t safe on the streets is what Gordon told me. Had intel on some big crime ring, and the usual safe houses weren’t secure.” Williams informed me. “I figured she had some tie to Pennyworth or a maid there.” In any event, he assured me that Cat was the one he escorted to Wayne Manor. “If nothing else, the look in Wayne’s eyes is enough to convince me.” He stated, looking at the photo. “Kid had the same look the first time they met, like his eyes turned into little hearts.” 

He gave the photo another look. “You said her name was Selina Kyle?” After I confirmed it, Williams let out a wry chuckle. “That explains Wayne’s arrest.” At my look, he informed me that Bruce Wayne was arrested in his teenage years, caught at the site of a robbery in progress. “Gordon was pissed, wondering what he was doing there. Once he said he was looking for Selina Kyle, boss let him go. Name stuck in my head. I’ve been wondering who could have that kind of pull on Bruce Wayne for fifteen years.”

Williams also informed that Selina had stopped being arrested, but had not gone straight. “She had a gift. She didn’t stop stealing as much as she stopped getting caught, mark my words.” 

Following that logic, I instead turned to the underworld for information on Miss Kyle. She was apparently a thief of great repute, building her reputation as one who could get anything, and always the real deal. She had knowledge of the most recent security systems, of art history and forgeries you wouldn’t expect from a street kid with a third grade education. Selina, however, had a wealthy benefactor. What she lacked in formal education could be learned by pursuing the Wayne Manor library, if not the manor itself, and how better to master circumventing security that at the home of a friend whose house always had the latest toys?

And make no mistake, she and Bruce were friends. Bruce Wayne’s periods of “homeschooling” were spent in the Narrows alongside Selina Kyle. It is hard to remember now that he’s an icon, but in his youth, Bruce Wayne was a recluse. There are few public appearances, fewer photos, and it was not uncommon for him to go months without anyone seeing him. Yet, during many of these dark periods, people recall Selina Kyle having a shadow of her own. Young, dark, and brooding, people have no issue identifying her other half as the boy in the photo I showed them. More than once, people comment on how it’s their connection that really cements their recognitions. Apparently, Selina and her other half often appeared to be lost in their own world. Other times, they would bicker, with Bruce acting as her conscience. Still, they always backed each other when it came down to it. Just as often, though, Selina would be alone, cursing any who mentioned her absent friend. 

As I continued to dig, it became apparent that Officer Williams was right. She had moved up in the underworld. Her youthful adventures, I could find many willing to discuss. But as I attempted to trace her life, people talked less and less, and what they said became more and more alarming. Selina Kyle was linked to Firefly, to Poison Ivy, to the Sirens. She adopted the whip as her weapon of choice, having been schooled in the art by none other than Tabitha Galavan herself.

It was here when the pieces finally came together, not about who Selina Kyle was, but who she is and why Bruce Wayne is so secretive about her. Selina Kyle is an unrepentant thief who spent her life on the streets. She, through great tragedy, became close with Wayne, a friendship that opened doors for her and allowed her to develop the skills needed to become more than a pickpocket. She sank deeper and deeper into the underworld, learning how to become a dangerous adversary, as well as how to wield a specific, rare weapon. Then, not three days after Bruce Wayne left Gotham for an unknown length of time, a new figure appeared. A classy cat burglar, who knew how to go straight for the good stuff, and used a whip as her primary weapon. She became known as Catwoman. 

Catwoman is easily the most notorious woman in Gotham. One of the GPDs most wanted and a feminist icon, the Narrows queenpin and art snob, nothing about her is known to anyone. It’s often assumed that she is a well-educated upper-class socialite, given her ability to pass through the upper crust unnoticed, but five years of friendship with Bruce Wayne would have given her that as well. She lived in Wayne Manor off and on for years, presumably she learned how to deal with formal cutlery. Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises remain the only major figures in Gotham she hasn’t stolen from, and whenever employees are targeted, their corruption is usually exposed within a week. Selina Kyle is Catwoman.

Selina stays hidden not to avoid the press, but recognition and criminal charges. And Bruce Wayne’s refusal to so much as confirm her existence? He knows what she is, but for all his bluster about cleaning up Gotham, he is unwilling to turn in his oldest friend. After all, she’s just a thief, she rarely starts physical encounters, and she may be the queenpin of the Narrows, but police I’ve talked to confirmed that her takeover of the Narrows and the working girls therein saw a serious reduction in violence against working girls, as well as the sudden end of any child prostitution anywhere in Gotham. Seventeen years later, it appears Selina Kyle still has her heart. Plus, I can only imagine the information someone like Wayne can pass an art thief: who has, who's buying, who's security is not up to scratch, all slipped to his dear friend.

So there you have it. Bruce Wayne’s mysterious shadow, everyone’s favorite party gossip, is Selina Kyle, a former runway, a cat burglar, living proof that women can crack the glass ceiling of crime, and the person he trusts most. I think we’ve also determined why he never seems to be in any rush to find someone to settle down with. Bruce Wayne has been in love with Selina since they were children, and given that she’s a smart, ruthless, beautiful woman who clearly loves him back, who can blame him? 

\---

Every time she glanced at the paper, Vicki could feel her face almost split in half from her smile. She was on the front page, above the fold! Three years spent at the Gazette, toiling away in the society pages, have all led to this. They might have scoffed at her as nothing but a pretty face, but now, she was the one who identified Catwoman and outed her as a close associate of Bruce Wayne. She was moving up in the world; she could feel it. The eighteen months spent digging into Bruce Wayne's secret companion had paid of better than her wildest dreams could have predicted. 

"You Vale?" a sharp voice asked from above.

"Yes, I'm her- oh, _fuck_." Vicki glanced up to see a petite young woman, with curly brown hair, and skin that could be anything from Latina to Asian-Native American. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. Danger poured off her visitor, from the leather jacket to the combat boots to the whip curled at her hip. "Miss Kyle, I presume?"

"Yeah, I'm Selina. Listen, you made a serious mistake in this, and I want you to take it back." She pointed at the paper on Vicki's desk, the one that had brought her so much joy thirty seconds ago. "I don't get intel from Bruce. I'd never use him like that." The icy look in her eyes made Vicki's blood run cold. 

She reached for her notepad and began writing. "Just to confirm, you're not denying the long history between you and Bruce Wayne, the lesser criminal charges, or the allegation that you're Catwoman? Your only interest is in denying that Bruce Wayne supplies you with information for your professional endeavors?" A quick nod from Selina, and Vicki underlined her notes. "Alright, I'll send a memo to the editorial staff. The correction will be done in time for the evening edition." Steeling herself, she forced the question out. "Why don't you? Use Mr. Wayne for information, I mean. Off the record, if you want."

Selina gave a grin, a soft, genuine smile that made her seem far more human. "He's the only person I care about. And I mean that, the only person. And he accepts what I do, but he doesn't like it. So I don't rub it in. You can print that. Make sure people understand that we're more than our jobs."

Vicki gave her a professional nod. "Of course. I'm terribly sorry about the misunderstanding. Tell you what, if you ever want to tell your story, in your own words, I'd be delighted to listen. Here's my card." 

Selina took the offered business card, and to Vicki's surprise, tucked it into pocket. "I'll keep that in mind. Now, where's your boss's office?"

"Two floors up, third door on the right." Vicki responded without thinking, then remembered who she was talking to. "Why do you ask?"

The sharp look Selina gave her could have cut glass. "You are clearly the best reporter on staff. You're smart, tenacious, charming, and driven. Yet you're stuck writing puff pieces while the idiots around you get the good stories as a reward for having a dick. I am filing a complaint. Possibly with my whip. Women like us need to support each other."

Vicki watched as the most wanted woman on Gotham sauntered to threaten and possibly maim her boss in the name of fair reporting practices. "I knew that article was a good idea."


End file.
